Editing Andrew Fisher (section)

=== Federal politics ===
[[Image:Labor 1901b.jpg|right|thumb|Labour Party MPs elected at the inaugural [[1901 Australian federal election|1901 election]], including [[Chris Watson|Watson]], Fisher, [[Billy Hughes|Hughes]], [[King O'Malley|O'Malley]], and [[Frank Tudor|Tudor]]]]
The state Labour parties and their MPs were mixed in their support for the [[Federation of Australia]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Federation Political Groups – to 1901 and beyond  |work=[[National Library of Australia]]  |url=http://www.nla.gov.au/guides/federation/politics.html  |access-date=31 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070830162636/http://www.nla.gov.au/guides/federation/politics.html  |archive-date=30 August 2007 |url-status=live 
}}</ref> However Fisher was a firm believer in federation, supporting the union of the Australian colonies and campaigned for the 'Yes' vote in Queensland's 1899 referendum.<ref name=adb/>  Fisher stood for the [[Division of Wide Bay]] at the inaugural [[1901 Australian federal election]] and won the seat, which he held continuously for the rest of his political career.<ref name = "Fisher16"/> At the end of 1901, Fisher married [[Margaret Fisher|Margaret Irvine]], his previous landlady's daughter.<ref name=apmb>{{cite web | title =Andrew Fisher, Before office | work =Australia's Prime Ministers | publisher =[[National Archives of Australia]] | url =http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/fisher/before-office.aspx | access-date =9 February 2010 | archive-date =23 September 2009 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090923003840/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/fisher/before-office.aspx | url-status =dead }}</ref>

Fisher supported the [[White Australia policy]] but also argued that any Kanaka who had converted to Christianity and married should be allowed to remain in Australia.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

Labour improved their position at the [[1903 Australian federal election|1903 election]], gaining enough seats to be on par with the other two, a legislative time colloquially known as the "three elevens". When the Deakin government resigned in 1904, [[George Reid]] of the [[Free Trade Party]] declined to take office, resulting in Labour taking power and [[Chris Watson]] becoming Labour's first prime minister for a four-month period in 1904. Fisher established and demonstrated his ministerial capabilities as [[Minister for Trade (Australia)|Minister for Trade and Customs]] in the [[Watson Ministry]]. The fourth Labour member in the ministry after Watson, Hughes, and [[Lee Batchelor]], Fisher was promoted to Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1905.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

[[File:Andrew_Fisher_1904.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.9|Fisher in 1904, around the time of the [[Watson government]]]]
George Reid adopted a strategy of trying to reorient the party system along Labour vs non-Labour lines – prior to the [[1906 Australian federal election|1906 election]], he renamed his [[Free Trade Party]] to the Anti-Socialist Party. Reid envisaged a spectrum running from socialist to anti-socialist, with the [[Protectionist Party]] in the middle. This attempt struck a chord with politicians who were steeped in the [[Westminster system|Westminster tradition]] and regarded a [[two-party system]] as very much the norm.<ref>[https://www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/2015/04/images/stories/policy-magazine/2009-autumn/25-1-09-charles-richardson.pdf Fusion: The Party System We Had To Have? – by Charles Richardson CIS 25 January 2009]</ref>